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“Badfinger’s Masterpiece ‘We’re for the Dark’: Was it Actually Written by Paul McCartney?”

I love how wikipedia throws this in there: it’s an “Intervention of Paul McCartney” section on the band’s blurb, wherein they state, oh yeah, McCartney wrote all their da**ed songs, or at least all their good ones. Well, as we all know, McCartney isn’t exactly a stranger to humor, evidenced in that bizarre glass-breaking sound byte before “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love away” on the Anthology version, and the whole “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” thing, et. al. His days with the Beatles indicate that he APPARENTLY knows how to write a song, whereas his solo days don’t, so much. [1] The beginning of “Band on the Run” is cool, but then it morphs pointlessly into that anticlimactic cheese-fest, and “Live and Let Die” makes me want to do just that. Well, shucks, if you give a mouse a cookie, I guess. So he gave Badfinger a cookie — “Come and Get it,” the first song on their first album. [2] [3] McCartney is listed as producer of the album, and don’t let the credits fool you — he also wrote “Carry on ’til Tomorrow,” according to the band’s wikipedia blurb, the other probably top-four-of-band’s-catalogue cut, a haunting, quintessentially British, almost Radiohead-like dirge to which we all certainly can relate. So credit Badfinger at least with a sense of humor of their own. On their followup to Magic Christian Music, No Dice, they christen one special hymn “Love Me Do,” and no, it’s not a Beatles COVER (although to be sure it might as well be). So are there some songs on it? Well, there’s “No Matter What,” another of the band’s hits, which features the romantic line “No matter what you are / I will always be with you” (like what, is the girl going to transform into a frog or a donkey, or something?) And oh yeah, it’s got the best song of all time, “We’re for the Dark.” And sure, it’s not THAT interesting as to whether McCartney wrote this song or not — Pete Ham killed himself anyway, there will be no Badfinger reunions, and most of the leathery old people who go see McCartney probably have no idea who Badfinger is, though as I’m discussing here, it’s POSSIBLE that they should. Whereas, having three biographies about the band, that might be slight overkill, but as we know the British do love to write. [4]Before Pete Ham, Badfinger’s singer, killed himself, leaving in his midst a note bit**ing at band manager Stan Polley (how’s that for sending a strong message?), the band put out A**, an album depicting a donkey, as well as a phallic carrot on it. There. I’m sorry. Anyway, I don’t buy the “No Matter What” and “We’re for the Dark” being on the same album. If artistic viability were being exhibited, “We’re for the Dark” would be the last thing the muse emitted before embarking upon the great celestial.

[The end].[1] Now, it’s complicated, because taken as consummate centerpieces Flaming Pie, and that self-titled boxed set he just put out, do make for precociously enjoyable listens. .[2] Before Magic Christian Music the band had been known as The Iveys, for whom there are not only no albums on iTunes (excepting the other band known as “The Iveys”), but no wikipedia page. .[3] This all best the question as to whether McCartney is also responsible for what I’m assuming is a tongue-in-cheek album title: Magic Christian Music. .[4] Classic combination, British biographer on American band; not so much, any biography of British band.